Pulchrae Rosae
by ohdumbledear
Summary: Of a one-size-too-small swimsuit, a strange long-faced man with sad eyes, and a lone sun. (Rated T because you can never be too safe.)


**Author's Note/Disclaimer/etc.: I don't own Doctor Who, unfortunately. This is my first finished Doctor Who fanfic (my first written one is still in progress). **

"I know just where we're going today!" Exclaimed the Doctor, jumping and spinning around the TARDIS console.

"Oh, do you?" asked Rose, watching his every move. She never did mind his shouts of excitement (which were very different than his shouts of anger, mind you; though she didn't quite mind those either).

"'Course I do! Great place, you'll love it. Get to take off a few layers, warm place- beautiful, too. Well, not more beautiful than some things I've seen, or will see, of course! Not today, obviously, of course, I mean, er, you know what I mean, right? Anyway, off you get, it's a beach, you get changed and I'll fly," he rambled on nervously.

"Oh, what, and you're not changing? I'm not gonna be the only one in a swimsuit; you'd better get one on too. I know exactly what you're trying to do, Doctor, don't deny it. You just want to take me to a beach so you can drop me off and hang out in the TARDIS for a few hours, doing God-knows-what. I've got you all figured out, I have!" said Rose, pointing at him with a tongue-out-of-teeth smile.

"You got me," said the Doctor, perhaps a little too quickly. _That was a close one. _

"Well? Come on then, why won't you wear a swimsuit? 'S just a pair of shorts," reasoned Rose.

"Rose," said the Doctor, putting his hands on her shoulders, "I don't wear-" he gulped- "_short _pieces of clothing because... I look like a piece of chicken. To be exact, an uncooked leg of a chicken. But not an Earth chicken, no- one of those chickens you find on Nov. You know, the whiter-than-albino ones. Trust me, you do _not_ want to see me in a bathing suit."

"Oh, I'm sure I can make do," said Rose. Maybe, if she was lucky, he'd find a pair of shorts that made his already magnificent bum stand out just a bit more. But then again, maybe her luck had run out by now. Being picked up (that wasn't quite the word) by this wonderful man in the magical blue box in the first place had probably used up her luck for her whole life. But it didn't hurt to hope. It was rather nice, actually.

The Doctor's face turned a light shade of pink and he walked out of the console room, head held high despite his embarrassment. Rose followed him nearly all the way to his bedroom, but turned when she got to her own. She wondered which swimsuit to put on- one that covered her fairly well or one that showed her off a bit more? She soon decided on the latter; after all, it never did hurt to show a little skin sometimes. Plus, she was going to force the Doctor out onto the beach with her (she'd be flat-out lying to herself if she said she didn't fancy that man at least a little bit). She did have a fairly good body, she wasn't going to deny that- and neither would the Doctor once he saw her in her pink swimsuit that was about a size too small.

Rose left to wait in the console room once her swimsuit was on. She quickly noticed that it really didn't cover her well at all- it only covered the important bits. She sat down on the captain's chair, pulled her knees up to her chin, and put her arms around them to try to keep warm. Soon the Doctor wandered in, wearing a normal-looking pair of swim shorts covered in tiny green palm trees. _Probably have bigger-on-the-inside pockets, _Rose thought. _Otherwise these'd be way too human for him. _

"Cold?" the Doctor asked, when he noticed Rose shivering on the chair.

"A bit, yeah," Rose replied, nodding. Maybe the Doctor would come over and give her a hug or something to warm her up. That was what she was hoping, anyway... But the Doctor showed no sign whatsoever of wanting to display any sort of affection. Typical Doctor, really.

"No worries, Rose Tyler, because once I plug in the coordinates-" at this, he promptly typed in some numbers into a keypad- "turn a few knobs-" he turned three knobs- "and press a few buttons-" he pushed about seven buttons on various places on the console- "we'll be there!" He dashed over to the door and opened it. "After you, Dame Rose!"

Rose grinned and got up from the chair. Keeping eye contact with the Doctor and biting her bottom lip in an attempt to look cute, she walked over to the door and peeked out. It was, in fact, a beach (which meant the Doctor had flown correctly this time). As the Doctor had mentioned before, it was beautiful- the most beautiful thing Rose had ever seen (apart from possibly the way the Doctor looked when he was tired). She would've suspected it was an Earth beach if not for the soft pink-and-yellow sky that seemed to go on forever. "Where are we?"

"Called Olim Stellae. Latin. Means 'once stars.' Legend has it that the sky here used to be full of stars until one day, a mighty god struck them out of the sky. Now there's only one star, it's a lot like your sun, but it only comes out once a year. And when it does, it creates this beautiful sky, and all the people come out to the beaches and admire it, and rejoice. Thought I'd bring you here, 'cos its one of my favourite places. Gorgeous. Almost as beautiful as-" he paused and gulped, staring straight into Rose's eyes.

"Yeah?"

"As, erm... New Earth. Lovely there, lovely here. Don't you think?" the Doctor asked, fidgeting with the pockets of his swim trunks.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. Now let's go celebrate, shall we?" asked Rose, taking his hand as she did so often.

The Doctor grinned at her as she dragged him out of the TARDIS. He was definitely _not_ looking at her as they ran toward a pile of beach towels for public use, _not_ closely watching her barely-covered bum right in front of him, _not_ admiring the way the wind blew her blonde hair into her eyes right after she brushed it away with her free hand, _not_ feeling a bit more carefree at the sound of her laughter. All of that would have been completely unacceptable- imagine! A Timelord in love with a human? Quite frankly, it could never work out. But then again, the Doctor was never really a strict follower of the rules, never really did stick to the status quo. He could hear her voice now, it really was lovely- _no!_ he had to remind himself. _Rose is off-limits. You've got to stop thinking like that. She's. Human. _Besides, he was already far too possessive over her as it was.

"Doctor!"

"Sorry," he apologized. "You were saying..."

"About the towels? I'm gonna get two, and tan for a bit, these people here must be just three inches shorter than us or something. These towels are tiny. You can get however many, and go run off and find danger, or whatever you'd like to do. 'Kay?"

"Er, right. How about I go get us ice cream, eh?" the Doctor suggested. Rose nodded in approval and plopped two towels down in the one clear-of-people area she could see. She laid down on her front and closed her eyes until an unknown voice awoke her.

"'Scuse me, can I sit here with you? There's no other spot," it said in a soft sort of voice.

"Oh, erm... Sure, yeah. My- friend, he was s'posed to sit there, but he can make room when he gets back, eh?" Rose replied, looking at the strange man. He was a few inches taller than her and had a long face with barely any eyebrows. He reminded her of the Doctor for some reason, which was perhaps why she let him stay. _Guess I've got a type now_, she thought.

The man laughed lightly and sat down next to Rose, who was still lying stomach-down on the towel. "Sky's beautiful, don't you think?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Yeah," agreed Rose, flipping onto her back. _That was probably a bad idea. Could be a horrible pervert._

"Almost as beautiful as you," said the man, and Rose watched as his sad-looking eyes widened so much that they began to water.

"I'm gonna stop you right there," said Rose, sitting up.

"Have you got a boyfriend, Rose?" he said, amused, but seeming even more interested in staring at her.

"No, not- well, yes. Yes, I have got a boyfriend, and he's really strong, he could, erm, get rid of you really fast," said Rose. "Not that I couldn't do it myself, because I so could if you keep staring at me!" The man smiled a bit at this. She spotted the Doctor approaching with an ice cream cone and she motioned for him to hurry up.

He did, and when he arrived at Rose's towels she was sharing, he said "Who's your boyfriend?" He wrinkled his nose in disgust. _Idon'tcareIdon'tcareIdon'tcareIdon'tcare._

_"_This is the Doctor," said Rose. "He's my boyfriend."

"He looks... Nice," said the Doctor, raising an eyebrow at Rose.

"And you look like a piece of chicken," said the man, taking his eyes off Rose for one second to stare at the Doctor just as wide-eyed as he had Rose. His huge eyes were smiling, yet sad.

"And you," said the Doctor to the man, unable to bear it anymore, "need to get away from Rose. Insult me, fine. Lay a finger on my Rose, lay an _eye_, you disgusting creature, on her body- _stop it_- you're dead. You can go find somewhere else to sit. Please."

The man put a hand to his eyes and then ran off, calling a word that sounded like "river."

"_Boyfriend?_" blurted the Doctor.

"No, of course not! He's just-"

"No, _me_! Your _boyfriend_? _Really?_" He burst out laughing.

"Sorry, I didn't know what else to say, he was trying to come onto me and I didn't know what else to do," started Rose. "Didn't want to get violent." She giggled nervously.

"Just thought it was funny," said the Doctor.

"Hold on- did you say _my_ Rose?"

Did he? Oh, Rassilon, no. He knew he was too protective, now he had to go and make it worse. _My _Rose? Why would he say that? She wasn't his, he knew that, how could he have been so stupid? Now he'd really messed up. But eventually he came up with, "Erm... Well... Yes... It's because-" _I love you_- "you're in my care." _No one but me should be looking at you the way he was._

Rose raised an eyebrow at him, but dropped the subject. "Why have you only got one ice cream?"

"Thought we could share, 'cos they ran out," said the Doctor. He wasn't lying, not really. It was a half-truth. True, he thought they could share, but there were definitely more ice creams. _Indirect kissing_, the Doctor had thought, having given up on the _I-can't-love-Rose-she's-human _thing.

Rose rolled her eyes. She leaned over and took a lick of the ice cream. "Apple?"

"Apple," said the Doctor, hoping she recognized it as an inside joke.

"Doctor," said Rose suddenly, "that man knew my name without me telling him. How did he know my name?"

"He knew your name? What did he say?" asked the Doctor, feeling his protectiveness coming on strong.

"He said 'have you got a boyfriend, Rose?' How could he know my name?" Rose asked, worried. "I've never seen him before. Reminded me of you, though. The look in his eyes, it was the same one you have when you talk about Gallifrey."

"_Someone from our future_," breathed the Doctor. Of course, it was only a suspicion, but the Doctor liked to think he was rarely wrong. _We must meet him sometime later, earlier for him. That's why she doesn't recognize him. _They could worry about it later.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's fine, don't worry, you're safe with me. No one's going to hurt you," he said, cradling Rose in a hug. He realized this was probably a bad idea (for Rassilon's sake, he wasn't her _father_) and tensed up only slightly when he felt so much of her skin touching his. _But not enough._

"I love this," said Rose, looking up at him.

"What?" asked the Doctor, sighing with relief that she wasn't uncomfortable.

"Everything," said Rose. "Traveling with you, this beach, your crazy protectiveness- oh, shut up, I'm kidding, it's fine- You hugging me this close, I don't mind that either," she said, her tongue poking out of her teeth in that smile the Doctor loved. He grinned at her and they both collapsed onto the towels, facing each other.

They lay there for hours, until the rare sun went down and the beach was empty. Rose was admiring the way the Doctor looked when he was tired, because he was, but mostly because he spent those hours looking up at the sky and thinking about where to go next. The whole cosmos was theirs to explore. He heard a cry which he recognized as that of the long-faced man, and then the sound of the TARDIS, or maybe something that sounded like it ("Just birds," he whispered to Rose absentmindedly). He now knew a tiny bit of what was to come, which was always a bit scary, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered now was that he was in love with Rose, and she was in love with him, neither of them could even try to deny it, just laying there in silence where no words needed to be said. Just the Doctor and Rose Tyler, together, as they both knew it always should be.

"We should do this more often," said the Doctor, breaking the silence that overcame the dark planet, or so it seemed.

"Come here?" asked Rose.

"Well, that too. I was more thinking about this... Resting situation," he said, inching so close to Rose that he could smell her shampoo (a smell he wouldn't mind smelling more often).

"Yeah," said Rose. "We should."

"Rose, did I ever tell you what their lone sun was called?" he asked after a moment's pause.

"Don't think so."

"Pulchrae Rosae. Latin. Now you'd better get some sleep, because tomorrow we're going back in time, far back. I've got a sun to name."

**Author's Note: If you didn't rush off to Google Translate or you don't take Latin, "Pulchrae rosae" means "of the beautiful rose." And hopefully you can figure out who the long-faced man is on your own :) I kind of made this fic a mashup of things I've been wanting to read (Doctor naming things after Rose, them figuring out their sleeping situation, protective Doctor on the beach). Also it was kind of inspired by my sister making a picture of the 11th Doctor say "I look like a piece of chicken."**

**Anyway, I hope you liked it, but regardless of whether you did or didn't, tell me what you thought (constructive criticism is welcomed)!**


End file.
